As previously blogged the long run is on Saturday this week due to taking Sharon out for a Mothers Day meal on Sunday on behalf of the gremlins. All up just before 7am, I get George ready and take him down to make his omelette, a Saturday tradition. Sharon and Claudia follow us down. The plan is for me to head off as near to 8am as I can and Sharon et al will meet me in Hyde Park 3 hours later for a picnic. The stress of organising this mammoth logistical exercise seems to take it's toll early - George loses interest in making omelette and instead decided to push Claudia in her walker/Davros control panel backwards into the wall, Sharon screams at George, I helpfully tell her to calm down and George starts crying. Meanwhile Claudia happily glides off smiling. After giving George his omelette I wolf down some toast and jam followed by Lucozade Sport. After breakfast I get changed and try on my new-fangled running belt that holds tow small water bottles and has pouches so I can carry two carbo gels. I think running belts look naff, like tourists wearing bum-bags but over 19 miles I will need all the help I can get. I wear the belt over my long-sleeve top then hide it under my running singlet. Now I just look slightly like a suicide bomber and to top it all the bottles look like hand-grenades, this may not bode well when I run passed the Household Cavalry barracks at Hyde Park later.After further stressing and arguing Sharon and I agree that I should finish just after 11am and Sharon and kiddies will arrive there around 11 and met me at the main gate. So at 8.10am I set off from the house. This is the first long run when nothing hurts from the word go which is a great confidence boost. The bottle belt feels fine too. As I hit Uxbridge Road the sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky, though still fairly nippy. In no time I've crossed Holland Park roundabout and I'm heading up the slope to Notting Hill. It's all fairly quiet, a few early shoppers and a few joggers. Soon I'm turning into Hyde Park and the first of the 4 laps starts.
The run is going amazingly smoothly, I have 2 small bottles of Lucozade Isotonic and 2 SIS Go Carbo gels. I was planning to take a gel at about 7 miles then 14 and sip the drinks as necessary. I complete the first lap without incident and the garmin shows about 6.6 miles gone. As I pass 7 miles I'm feeling fine so I hold off on the gels. The park is getting busier and what I have noticed is that tourists are obsessed with taking pictures of each other standing in front of a tree covered in cherry blossom. At about 10.5 miles I am still feeling good but decide to take a gel. The gel is surprisingly nice - much more watery than others I have tried so there's no need to wash it down with water. The gel seems to work and gives a good boost, though I don' know how much is psychosematic. As I turn in to my last lap I've covered just over 14 miles so that means after this lap I'll have about a mile to go and timing wise I should finish about 11:10am - perfect. I'm holding out on the last gel until the last 3 mile and I've finished most of the lucozade. At about 16 miles I have a near miss with a couple of horses by the army barracks, then at about 16.5 miles I start to hallucinate - I see the two 118 men running in the distance pursued by a fairy in a red leotard, tutu and tiara. After half a mile further I regain my sanity, there's a charity fun-run happening in the park. I complete the last lap and there's 1.1 miles to go. I run down the main strip alongside Kensington Palace checking the garmin so I can turn round with 0.6 to go. I turn round and with 0.2 miles left I spot Sharon, George and Claudia on the path in front of me. I run passed and wave saying "1 min!", Sharon waves, Claudia ga-ga's and George looks confused. A minute later I am walking back up to my waiting family. It's not quite a heroes welcome - George is playing up and whinging, Sharon had trouble parking and George wants an ice-cream. So while I get changed on a park bench, Sharon goes off to the cash point, George drinks most of my Lucozade recovery drink I'd packed in the bag Sharon's bought and Claudia just smiles at me. Finally Sharon's back, George has an ice-cream and we're strolling down to the Round Pond to have a picnic. I scoff down a bagel and some fruit, George eats everything on offer and we feed Claudia. George then runs up and down between us and the pond to watch the ducks. On the fourth trip George gets a bit over confident and in the next second he's sitting in the pond, soaked up to his waist. Luckily it's a sunny, warm day so he runs around naked from the waist down. When it's time to go George doesn't want to put a nappy on however daddy wants him to put a nappy on as thats the only way George will get to be carried to the car on my shoulders.
19 miles done, no injury to speak of, a picnic in the park and all by midday Saturday!
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